What is the stupidest thing you have burned in your boiler?
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trehugr said:
I was told due to the high moisture count burning was not advised so we compost ours.
We clean out boxes of expired records and checks from our businesses and I did not want my business crap blowing out along the road to the dump (landfill for the younger generation), so I start throwing a box into the boiler and out jumps a family of mice. I am not a big fan of mice in the home but do not want to fry live ones, has to be bad karma, so I start shoveling dirt, sand anything that will put the fire out. Saved the stinking mice but took 3 hrs to clean all the non burnable debris out of the firebox, clean outs etc. I was so mad bought a box of decon.
603doug said:
Thats the way, instead of burning them alive, dehydrate em... good and slow. At least they'll have the correct MC when you throw the little @#$&!rds back in the fire. Did you ever see 'Never Cry Wolf' ?
This thread has vastly exceeded my expectations for entertainment! Some good stories. I particularly like the one about the spray can. Good stuff there...
I have not burned anything but wood but this seems like the right place to place this question.
What would you expect from burning spent mushroom substrate? Before the quips start, there is no manure in our process. Just straw, a bit of wheat bran and mushroom mycelia.
We have to dispose of it anyway; so burning it and capturing BTUs seems logical if it won't harm the gasifier. I am a bit concerned about corrosion (as anyone with a boiler should be).
Are there chemicals present in straw that would make it more corrosive than wood? I remember hearing something about un-senesced switchgrass as a biofuel and the excess chlorine produced in the presence of heat that might do harm to the boiler because of chlorine's corrosive effect on metals. Would the straw in the substrate be the equivalent of aged and dried switchgrass or un-senesced switchgrass.
I guess only a straw burner would know for sure, but opinions are welcomed.
What would you expect from burning spent mushroom substrate? Before the quips start, there is no manure in our process. Just straw, a bit of wheat bran and mushroom mycelia.
We have to dispose of it anyway; so burning it and capturing BTUs seems logical if it won't harm the gasifier. I am a bit concerned about corrosion (as anyone with a boiler should be).
Are there chemicals present in straw that would make it more corrosive than wood? I remember hearing something about un-senesced switchgrass as a biofuel and the excess chlorine produced in the presence of heat that might do harm to the boiler because of chlorine's corrosive effect on metals. Would the straw in the substrate be the equivalent of aged and dried switchgrass or un-senesced switchgrass.
I guess only a straw burner would know for sure, but opinions are welcomed.
Mushroom Man said:
No expert opinion, but I would expect that it wouldn't cause any particular damage. However, I'd wonder about two possible issues that might be of greater concern -
First off is the moisture content - how damp is this stuff, and how difficult would it be to dry it down to a level comparable to firewood?
Second question is what kind of BTU content would it have? I know that many people don't want to burn "punky" wood in their stoves because they feel like it doesn't have enough heat value to be worth while (plus it tends to be high in moisture, which makes it even less warming) - I burn everything that will hold together long enough to make it into the wood pile, but the punky stuff does go pretty fast... My understanding is that mushroom growing is essentially the same process that makes wood rot, and that the fungus uses up most of the "good stuff" in the wood - so how much heat value will you get? Would it be worth whatever processing you needed to do to get it to a burnable state?
Gooserider
Gooserider has some good questions. The moisture is variable but it get dry very fast. It feels denser than punky wood. Probably the answer lies in a test burn. My expectations are low so "nothing ventured, nothing gained".
Pellet stove makers are exploring switchgrass pellets as a reasonable alternative to wood pellets. I just thought this spent biomass might be an equally viable biofuel. Experiments pending.
Pellet stove makers are exploring switchgrass pellets as a reasonable alternative to wood pellets. I just thought this spent biomass might be an equally viable biofuel. Experiments pending.
DaveBP said:
YAH! Ya think!!?????
I spoke with a few farmers in this area regarding using debris from the fields for fuel. To a person they all said that in terms of enriching the soil and preventing soil erosion, there was far more benefit in leaving it right on the field and working the plant residue back in. The idea of burning the "waste" as I called it, didn't fly well at all. Gave up on that idea.
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